Teach for America emphasizes quality

Across the nation, Teach For America puts talented young teachers into schools that need them.

And in Jacksonville, the Duval County Public Schools have greatly benefited from the infusion of youthful talent and intellectual energy that Teach for America has brought to the system since 2008.

Teach for America corps members educate hundreds of students here in all grades and practically every subject.

And the majority of its instructors work in Duval’s toughest schools with classrooms full of kids with academic, economic and other challenges.

Equally important, the Jacksonville staff members are earning respect from the experienced peers and administrators working with and supervising them.

In various Duval schools, Teach for America members have been nominated by fellow teachers for teaching awards.

And school principals actively request corps staffers for their schools, impressed by the knowledge, work ethic and motivational skills of the instructors.

“There’s a demand from principals for our (staffers),” said Crystal Rountree, executive director of Teach for America’s Jacksonville office.

During a recent session with the Times-Union editorial board, Rountree said the teaching organization’s early goal was to gradually become ”big enough to matter, but small enough to manage” across the Duval school district.

“And we’re at that scale now,” she said.

That’s why it’s encouraging that Duval’s district will keep its partnership with Teach for America on stable footing during the upcoming 2014-15 academic year.

The alliance has been good for schools and students.

And it continues to hold great potential in helping Duval’s school district find and develop tomorrow’s great teachers today.

INSTRUCTORS, ROLE MODELS

During the 2013-14 academic year, there were 200 Teach for America instructors working in 40 Duval schools. The district plans to keep those same numbers in place for the 2014-15 school year.

Teach for America instructors are recruited from colleges across the country and make a minimum two-year commitment to the program.

They go through a demanding “boot camp” to prepare them for the educational rigors and social challenges they will face when they start teaching in their designated communities.

The tough process has certainly helped Teach for America make an impact in the local schools.

Corps members assigned to work in the Duval schools first spend time touring the city and learning about the specific neighborhoods where they will be, so the instructors are able to develop a rapport with the students.

That’s an invaluable asset in encouraging those kids to achieve.

Many of the students see their young corps instructors as not only teachers but as role models they can relate to and aspire to emulate.

ADDITION, NOT SUBTRACTION

Let’s dispel the myth pushed by skeptics in the teaching industry obsessed with protecting their turf that local Teach for America members are actively “taking jobs away” from more experienced and higher-paid teachers in Jacksonville.

During the 2013-14 academic year, there were 8,138 teachers in the Duval school district. Teach for America members accounted for 200 of that figure — or less than 3 percent of the district’s teachers.

What they lack in numbers they make up for with a sense of enthusiasm that’s admirable and engaging.

“The stars are really aligning in our community,” Rountree told the editorial board regarding the growing support for Teach for America’s work in Jacksonville.

“I think in five to 10 years, people are going to be looking to Jacksonville to figure out how to address education in their communities.”

Teach for America continues to have a role to play in getting our community closer to that day. It is one of the reasons for the civic energy being felt in Jacksonville.

It’s promising that the Duval schools district sees that, as well, by continuing to support this highly effective initiative.

Parents need to realize that the 'teachers' provided by Teach for America are usually not college of education graduates. They have graduated from college and then received a "teacher training" that usually lasts approximately five weeks in the summer prior to entering a classroom. Most of these teachers will be successful, just as will any new teacher entering the classroom. But the TFA recruits do not have all the background knowledge a teacher that entered the profession the traditional method possesses. This handicaps them and the students they teach whenever a situation arises that may not have been covered in their five week training. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/does-5-weeks-of-tr...

This is not to say that a well educated college graduate cannot be a great teacher with 5 weeks of training, but it is important for parents to ask about their children's teachers' training and experience. Most teachers provided by TFA only make a 2 year agreement to remain in the classroom, so the money the district spends training these teachers leaves the district when these teachers leave. Some of them do remain with the district and continue teaching as they acquire professional certification. Communities around the United States must decide if they are comfortable with the money spent for TFA educators AND if children's educations may be in jeopardy by placing a teacher with only 5 weeks training in classrooms. I believe Miami and Jacksonville are the only 2 cities in Florida who employ TFA and Orlando is beginning this year. In Pittsburgh, PA, a decision was made the past year to no longer pay the additional funds to TFA to hire teachers from them. http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/4/teach-for-americacontractpi...

Teach for America is a non-profit organization who just happens to be partnered with the nation's largest for profit charter school company.http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/teach-for-americas-new-partnership-with-largest-for-profit-charter-network/2012/03/13/gIQAbsfrLS_blog.html

I don't believe this bodes well for the future of public education in Jacksonville. Many of the companies and grants being introduced into the Duval County Public Schools seem to be connected to groups that are working to close down public schools and reopen them as for profit charter schools that can choose their students. If our city loses control of the public school system as is happening in cities up north, Jacksonville will never be able to be the city it could/should be!

Since I am assuming tax payers are helping pay executives at teach for america their 6 or 7 digit salaries, just wondering how much tax payer is being spent for the pr department to write this bs and then try to pass it off as news. Guessing ethics is not one of the classes they teach at teach for america. Why don't they name it patriots teaching for america so everyone will understand where this comes from?

TU how do we know when you are giving us news or self produced propaganda?